Re: Embarrassed to ask, but Mil discounts?

We got married in San Diego, which had a high military population. Our venue was a military museum, which ended up being free because we volunteered there forever. We got discounts on my dress, our videography, and my photographer was crazy reasonable because she was a friend and fellow spouse. I asked for everything. I don't like using H's service/my service for sympathy or attention, but I'll ask once if there's a military discount. If not, I don't make a huge deal of it, if people apologize for not having one, I always just say that I always ask but it's not why I/he joined, and smile. You're more likely to have it offered if you're near a large base, but it can't hurt to ask either way.

Definitely ask, some will have it but not mention it unless you do. Like @iluvmytxgr said, there are tons of things you can do yourself, and tons of other little things you can do to help ease the cost. (Our whole wedding is happening on about $2500, and three months of planning, it's not impossible.)

All depends! Most of my vendors didn't, but when I was going through a wedding timeline with my venue I was using military time without thinking about it (1400 instead of 2 p.m. etc.). They realized my fiance' and I were both in the military and gave us our photo booth for free. Sometimes you luck out on things like that

Our DJ gave us a military discount and that was on top of a Sunday discount. It doesn't hurt to ask. Even if they don't most people can sympathize with your sacrifices. Even though our reception site didn't offer a military discount, the owner who coordinated the whole thing knew our background and worked that much harder to make sure it was everything we wanted and deserved. My dad is retired AF, but still serves overseas.